Teen magazines don't let you send in pictures of yourself and collect likes from everybody in your social group.
This is where all the stress comes from. Young girls are under enormous pressure to be attractive and gather tons of likes from their peers. The feedback loop has tightened so much that it reinforces the repetitive behaviour of posting and checking for likes. It's addictive!
By contrast, however, they offer no positive feedback whatsoever. At my school social media contributes positively to most people's self esteem because it is a constant source of positive feedback from friends on personal activities and memories. IDK why we are blaming Instagram for bullying and issues that have been around for years.
> At my school social media contributes positively to most people's self esteem because it is a constant source of positive feedback from friends on personal activities and memories
But that's the problem. People get a "like" or equivalent on a photo or post and they conflate that with self-worth. They then see their friend (or worse, enemy) get more likes and either feel unworthy or a need to compete. I get the short-term self-esteem boost from a popular post, but the long-terms effects of chasing such positive affirmation are not healthy and will likely to lead to deeper issues later in life particularly once you enter the workforce.
Disclaimer: I went to school pre-social media so insert appropriate dinosaur reference.
Having friends and others that care about what you do is inherently part of social species' self worth--that doesn't imply "chasing positive affirmation", which is a problem. Nor does it necessitate a quantitative approach to counting likes. "Likes" are just the modern day version of getting a verbal "that's cool" from a friend. If someone goes around and counts how many positive things are said to them and compares it to others, that is an issues but it's not an issues of technology
Well now we are raising a society where previously neutral social spaces are changing to only permit encouraging and positive things, everything-else-be-damned. Allowing people to constantly pat each other on the back without criticism is going to make people even more spoiled and insufferable
Heh. The teenie magazines occasionally have a conscience where you least expect it. This fellow here - https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Goldstein_(Psychotherap... - he wrote for the best-known German youth magazine, and he was good. Instagram and Facebook, OTOH, they sell clicks and outrage, because outrage sells.
The illusion of authenticity, the pervasiveness and ubiquitous of mobile phone app usage, and participation in the illusion of the spectacle and camouflaged theatrics of a contrived reality.
Teens can understand magazines have a known aspect of theatrics, whereas the assumption is that instagram is reality and like a Pavlovian dog you must present your life in such a way to gather bonus points from other internet users.
I was recently introduced to Instagram by other 'serious' photographers and they have a wholly different use-case. No selfies or look-at-my-dinner but instead a sort of fast-paced challenge showcase e.g. today might be Sunsets and tomorrow Waves.
It's a way of building reputation , such as how programmers use Github, but because of Instagrams's resizing and compression of photos it's only an interest-generator; the full experience is on Flickr or 500px or whatever. But apparently it's the most lucrative channel for picking-up paid work.
I agree with you, but one thing to think about is that Instagram is always "on", it always has new content, something new to aspire to. Compare that to the monthly time frame of magazines, some of which might promote the same style for a few months before moving on.
It's also somewhat easier for parents to monitor their kids' magazine consumption (if only because magazines cost money), while it's hard to do the same for IG.
Social media is practically a Skinner Box (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinner_Box) with a very tight feedback loop. The randomness of the reward approaches an optimal conditioning schedule.
Listening to pop or reading a magazine doesn't have anywhere near that level of power.
This is where all the stress comes from. Young girls are under enormous pressure to be attractive and gather tons of likes from their peers. The feedback loop has tightened so much that it reinforces the repetitive behaviour of posting and checking for likes. It's addictive!